The Canal (2014) Rupert Evans, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Hannah Hoekstra, Kelly Byrne Movie Review

The Canal (2014)   2/52/52/52/52/5


The Canal (2014)

Murky Water

Film archivist David (Rupert Evans) is beginning to wonder whether his wife Alice (Hannah Hoekstra) has been unfaithful as he has concerns about her business relationship with Alex (Carl Shaaban). To make matters worse the old house they live in has started to leave him feeling spooked out ever since he was cataloguing old films and watched one from 1902 which shows a murder had happened in his home. When David decides to follow Alice one day she heads to a canal where his fears are proven right when he sees her with Alex. But when Alice goes missing and he contacts the police he finds himself at the top of the suspect list and on his own in believing something not of this world is responsible for his wife's disappearance.

"The Canal" has three ingredients; we have a house which maybe haunted by something connected to an ancient murder, we have a husband whose adulterous wife has been killed and the husband is becoming increasing unhinged thanks to the house. This three ingredients could have made for a fantastic horror movie which combined mystery with frights and a real sense of danger. But sadly "The Canal" is not that movie and ends up one of those movies which I am sure probably works well for those involved with the project and connected with writer/director Ivan Kavanagh's vision but that doesn't come over in the movie.

As such what you get in "The Canal" is an uneven movie where it gets ties up in delivering something tedious but then tosses a decent impact moment such as when David spots something in the video link he is watching of his son with the babysitter. Sadly there are not enough of these good moments strung together to really captivate you and far too often it feels like it is getting too distracted with the unimportant stuff to try and create this much larger picture than it needed to be.

What this all boils down to is that "The Canal" didn't do it for me and in the end it came across as a movie with some good ideas but the final product doesn't do justice to them and doesn't get across the story in a truly cohesive manner.


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